In this tutorial I would like to cover the use of adjustment layers in Photoshop CS6. There are many advantages to using adjustment layers. The main reason to use adjustment layers is the fact that they are non-destructive, meaning you do many adjustments to your image in a non-destructive way. Say you make your image black and white and later in the process you decide you want your image to have color again. If you were to simply use the image adjustment option in Photoshop( found under image- adjustments- black and white) this would make your image permanently black and white; the only way you could go back would be by undoing you history. The same effect can be achieved by using a black and white adjustment layer (found under layer-new adjustment layer-black and white) without it being a permanent change. When creating adjustment layers you will always get a new layer under your layers section; this new layer will represent your adjustment layer and will have the appropriate name assigned to it (you can also rename this layer just like any other layer). You can disable the visibility for your adjustment layer, thus enabling you to see the before and after effect, and you can also delete the layer at any time (with the ability to apply the adjustment to the image or not). Using adjustment layers makes it a lot easier to get an image to its original state should you change your mind about the adjustments applied to the image.

Adjustment layers behave really similar to any other layer and this makes it really convenient when editing an image. Another great feature of adjustment layers is the fact they conveniently come with a mask when you create them. The mask that comes with an adjustment layer behaves the exact same way as using quick mask (discussed in a previous tutorial). You can click on the mask (White Square) and then use your paint brush (using the default black and white colors) and paint away some of the effect of the adjustment layer. The mask lets you, selectively, add or substrate parts of the adjustment layer. Since an adjustment layer can be modified like any other layer, you can also use blending modes (discussed in a different tutorial) to achieve different effects.

Adjustment Layers in Action

Now that the theory and basics of how adjustment layers work has been covered, let’s put our new found knowledge to the test. I will show you what all the adjustment layers do by applying them to the image of the car (figure 1). For this tutorial I will cover 3 different adjustment layers and also how to use the mask that comes with each adjustment layer.

First open the image, go to file – open – pick your image (figure 2). Once you have your image open we can get started working with adjustment layers. For this tutorial I am using the Photoshop “essentials” work space which is the default work space when starting Photoshop. In this case the adjustment layer panel is placed on the right of the screen. If you don’t have the adjustment layer panel open you can do so by going to window- adjustments. You can also create adjustment layers from layer – new adjustment layer.

Figure 2

Brightness and Contrast

Let’s start by using the brightness and contrast adjustment layer, under the adjustment layer panel click the first icon (figure 3 and 4). When you create the adjustment you will notice that it will create a new layer under your layers panel and it will also open a small window with the adjustment layer properties. In the case of the brightness and contrast adjustment we are presented with very limited options to play with, there will be more options depending on the type of adjustment you are using.

Figure 3

Figure 4

With this adjustment we are given the obvious choice to change the brightness and contrast of the image. Brightness will make the image brighter or darker and contrast will increase or decrease the contrast. There is a check box to enable “use legacy” This will make the effect of the slider a bit more extreme(figure 5 and 6).

Figure 5

Figure 6

Let’s look at the icons located at the bottom of the properties window. The first icon makes it so only the layers below the adjustment layers are affected (figure 7). This is useful if you have many images composited and want the adjustment to affect only the layer/s below it. The next icon is to see the before and after the effect. The next icon is to reset the settings to default, the next is to enable/disable visibility, and the last icon is to delete the adjustment altogether. That is all to cover about the brightness and contrast adjustment as it is very self-explanatory.

Figure 7

Levels

We are now going to move on to the next adjustment layer type. The next in the list is the levels adjustment (figure 8). This adjustment type works very similar to the brightness and contrast, but with this adjustment you get more sliders to work with and thus make your changes a bit more selective. When you drag the slider in the middle you will increase or decrease the contrast of the image. When you drag the slider on the left you make the dark colors darker and the slider on the right makes the light colors lighter.

Figure 8

There is a preset drop down menu you can use for different templates. Notice there are 3 pickers on the left, one is for picking the darkest color in the image, the other to pick gray, and the other for picking white(figure 9). You can get a different effect when picking different parts of the image although usually all you need is play with the sliders. There is a drop down menu for working with different colors in the image, by default this is set to RGB and it means the sliders affect the whole image. You can change this to only affect the colors you want and thus the sliders will provide a different effect. The last slider makes it so the image is lighter or darker.

Figure 9

Curves

Click on the next icon to create a curves adjustment layer (figure 10). This looks like a very complicated adjustment layer, but in reality it’s just a variation of the levels adjustment layer. First you will notice there is a preset just like in the levels adjustment.

Figure 10

The first thing you will notice is the curve, you can drag the curve to increase or decrease the contrast of the image. The most useful function of the curves adjustment is that you can change from RGB to any of the other colors and use the curve. This makes the curves adjustment the best choice for color correcting your image. Notice that you also have the color picker for this adjustment. There is also a hand icon that acts as a color picker. Another useful tool is the create curve points (figure 11). This allows you to place points on the curve to create a more non-linear curve and thus helping you achieve different effects. There is also a pen icon you can use to draw a curve.

Figure 11

Masks

Now that we have worked with creating different types of adjustments let’s use the mask that came with the adjustments. I want the adjustments to only affect some parts of the image. I will click on the mask of my brightness and contrast adjustment (figure 12). Once selected you can use the paint brush using black or white to hide or show more of the adjustment. I will use the gradient tool and just drag to make it so the levels adjustment affects only part of the image (figure 13).

Figure 12

Figure 13

If you look at the mask thumbnail you see that part of it is black and part of is black. The white parts are being affected by the adjustment while the black parts are not. You can do the same with the masks of the other adjustments (figure 14).